What to do with Psylocke Fractured Frontier
Earth-383’s Psylocke rocks a fierce ponytail, hoop earrings, and psychic pistol-knives – my kind of lady! If we’re to trust the Riccardi Variant, they might even be capable of firing!
Aaanyway, she’s a 3-Cost Ramp card capable of handing out a bunch of discounts. She’s got some tough competition. Can she carve out a niche of her own? How will her Quickdraw ability serve her? Here is everything I’m excited to try with the new Psylocke Fractured Frontier card!
Discounts For All?
Like the other Quickdraw abilities we’ve seen so far (excluding the one Thanos hands out), Psylocke’s is strong but unreliable. It will only be useful on Turns 3–5, meaning you can only use it in 25% of normal games. Compare that to Sera being available to play on Turn 5 in 67% of such games.
Of course you can increase your chances at the Quickdraw with cards like Magik, Crystal, or Doctor Octopus Fractured Frontier (this week’s LTGM prize). Those all feel too cute – too much investment for too little payoff. That means you play Psylocke for her On Reveal. The Quickdraw can be a nice bonus, but not a build-around.
Her other gotcha is that her one-time discount only applies to the cards already in your hand. That means you need a lot of cards with 5+ Cost in your deck to make sure you maximize her effect. If you’re only gonna discount one card, you might as well be playing regular, ol’, not-a-gunslinger Psylocke.
Ramping Rivals
Psylocke’s specialty is ramping out at least two high-Cost cards, preferably including a 5-Cost on Turn 4. That makes her core competition the other 3-Costs that can do that.
Namorita is easier to apply to your low-Cost cards, but quite risky when it comes to making sure you can play a 5-Cost on Turn 4. I like the reliability of the other three a lot more. The extra Energy they provide can be used on any card, whether it was in your hand on Turn 3 or you drew it later. Extra Energy is a safer way to ramp, too, considering Mobius is so much more common than Quicksand.
Of course, they each have their downsides. Superior Spider-Man is probably a better fit in a lower-curve deck so you can set him up. Electro and Luna are just better at Psylocke’s main job, though.
And that gets to the heart of where I think Psylocke belongs. Her downside is pretty general, so she makes a good backup for any of the others. She’s never your #1 Ramp card, but she’ll be often be the best #2.
Or maybe even a #3? That may end up being her biggest impact of all, considering how hard it is to get any three of the others to play well in the same deck.
Lauren’s Day One Psylocke FF Decks
Psylocke Big Ramp
This is the Rampiest of Ramp decks. Psylocke fits here, though I’m doubtful she makes it better. If she did, I expect people would have been running Luna Snow in that spot (instead of Jubilee). That said, Psylocke doesn’t give your opponent an Ice Cube, and maybe that’s pretty important. Luna’s downside is pretty hard to measure.
Triple-3 Ramp
Here's the same sort of idea, but without the Lockjaw and Dragon Lord gambles. It’s a good example of Psylocke being the third Ramp option. Wave would work, so it’s not a totally novel deck structure, but Psylocke seems a lot better. Her discounts can stretch over multiple turns and she doesn’t help your opponent out at all.
Man-Psyder
This might be my favorite Psylocke home, mostly because she’s still helpful even if she only discounts a single card. It’s a deck that really wants to get one of its 5-Costs out early, and playing even one more turn of the combo makes it much bigger. Psylocke shines as a backup plan, but will occasionally be the best option depending on what’s in your hand.
Psybunal
Featuring a bunch of high-Cost targets and Ramp cards to back up. Psylocke is additionally a good body to target with Tao Mandala or Blink.
Psy Evo
This super cool deck comes from our friend, Ironcloak. Featuring Psylocke as a sub for Evolved Shocker of all things. I think Ironcloak might have actually found a deck where Psylocke is the #1 Ramp card. Her discount still supports playing Shulk + Hulk on the last turn, but can hit other targets as a bonus.
Askani’son is bait so you can play Cyclops against your opponent’s investment, or Professor X elsewhere.
Cope Psurfer
If there’s any low-curve deck to cope Psylocke into, it’s Surfer. Here, she backs up both Namorita and Sera. Her Quickdraw gives a pseudo-Sera effect you can definitely take advantage of because most your cards are cheap. Without her Quickdraw, she can still help you get Sera out on Turn 4. Worst-case scenario, at least she’s a body for Surfer.
Final Thoughts
I know I’m quite a bit lower on Psylocke than many of my fellow content creators. It comes down to a couple things:
- The fact that she only discounts what’s in your hand is a big downside
- She’s super replaceable
She's an upgrade for high-curve Ramp decks, but not a very big one. Redundancy is important in deckbuilding, and her biggest contribution is replacing whichever Ramp card has the biggest downside in your deck.
Mostly, I think her long-term strength will come down to if she’s a good replacement for Luna and Wave. Is it a good trade-off to have 2 less Power in order to avoid giving free Ramp to your opponent? I’ll be really interested to see how her stats compare after a few weeks.
She’s niche and replaceable. Grab her if you love Ramp. She’s an easy skip otherwise. One parting thought for your consideration: next month’s Superior Iron Man might be enough to take Psylocke to the next level.
Thanks again for your support! Come to our Discord to chat with other fans of the game!
Thanks to Snap.Fan, who generously provide us with the blue-border card images.
Thanks to SnapComplete.com, whose deck stats and Deck Builder tool helped me produce this page
Premium members will find a couple more fun Psylocke FF decks below! We are hugely grateful for all of the support we receive!
Techno-Organic Psyrus
I really had my doubts about this when Peepopo shared it in our Discord server (with Cull Obsidian in Psylocke’s spot). Shadowlands Daredevil never clicked for me, but holy moly he gets big when you have this many targets and lots of draw power. Psylocke’s discount lets you play Galactus + Demon on Turn 6 or, more importantly, will really help you make Skaar free.
Notably, if Psylocke discounts Virus, every copy of it will inherit the discount.
Pstar-Lord Master of the Psun
One more from Ironcloak. Star-Lord spent some time as the Master of the Ramp. He’s nowhere near as strong as he used to be, but he’s still playable. Psylocke 2’s Quickdraw is awesome for enabling Star-Lord.
